Did my taxes today and was very upset to find out that I can no longer get a deduction on my travel expenses for volunteering for FIRST on my Federal return. Because of this I got less than half the money I got last year for my tour. That is going to DRASTICALLY affect how I am going to travel this year. I think this change is going to dramatically affect volunteering for FIRST events in the future for everyone involved.
That’s really unfortunate to hear that your volunteering will be affected. It would be a big loss for FIRST if you aren’t able to do what you do for the program!
I question the quoted statement though… I have no idea how many volunteers factor potential tax write-offs into their decision making process for volunteering. It hasn’t even been a consideration for me personally. I want to say the effect from this will be fairly minimal on FIRST’s overall volunteer numbers… but I could definitely be wrong if a lot of volunteers factor their taxes into their volunteer decisions!
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Well it does cost money to volunteer and getting a deduction to get a bigger return certainly does help.
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We haven’t been able to itemize deductions for years…huh. Isn’t the standard deduction up to about 20k now?
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I’m assuming this was only ever available if you itemized? I’ve easily spent $5,000 on travel to volunteer for my team, but I didn’t know it was deductible. It hasn’t made sense for me to itemize anyway so I don’t think I was missing out. The standard deduction for married is $24,000 I think which is higher than we would get itemized.
Yes, the TAX changes for this year could impact some peoples deductions. The raised the standard deduction to 24K from 12K and I think they removed the personal exceptions (6,500).
I used to itemize and get a write off for my FIRST volunteering, hotels, travel costs, etc… But to now come up with MORE than 24K in deductions is tough. I used to live in a high tax state, and could always get a good write off. Now I live in a low tax state and it doesn’t pay to itemize. The 24K is way larger than I could ever get to now.
So… Thanks Trump?
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Well, it all depends on each persons individual situation.
For me personally I actually come out ahead, this year compared to previous years.
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This won’t change a thing for me. I never wrote off a dime for my volunteer time. I give that time and expect nothing in return.
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I 
d this, because I also feel this way about my time. That said, I have never had to drive more than about two hours more than one round trip each year, nor get more than three hotel room nights a year. Ed’s on a totally different plane, and I get that, too. @Koko_Ed, have you considered a gofundme or similar for your travel? I’d kick in a hundred.
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I wouldn’t do that because it’s like having people pay for my vacation. When you consider there are people out there with real problems like life threatening disease or losing a home my problem is very small in comparison.
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Is that because your itemized deductions come out less than the standard deduction now? Or because expenses related volunteering are no longer deductions?
I keep track of my mileage and hotels when I travel to FIRST events. (No where near as much as Ed!) I haven’t started my taxes yet, so I don’t know if I’ll be better off using the standard deduction or itemizing.
I hope you’re right.
I know I always felt that any credit I get from donations will get donated as well. If I only have $100 to give, and uncle Sam gives me $2 back, then I’ll donate that $2. But if I have to give that money to the government, I don’t have it anymore to donate.
So it really can affect how much someone is able to volunteer when they pay all their own expenses. Especially when it ends up being several hundreds or even a thousand dollars. (I’m sure it adds up when you spend 3 nights a week for 9 weeks in hotels and dinner at night. Thank goodness they feed you during the day. Thank you volunteers)
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You scared me for a minute, as I just filed last night and deducted my costs of travel for FIRST (14 cents per mile), tolls, and hotels. I did double-check, and yes you can include this on Schedule A if you itemize, on Line 11.
So I’m assuming @Koko_Ed is just saying that it’s not worth it for him to itemize anymore with the increased standard deduction. But if the standard deduction is higher now, and with the lower tax rates, I would think he’s spending less on federal taxes than he has in past years.
Certainly the tax code is even more complicated than an FRC manual, and it’s possible with whatever his situation is that he actually does pay more in taxes than in past years. But I expect that with most people, they’re paying less in taxes starting in 2018.
All I got to say is it’s a good thing CD has a profanity filter…
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I was told by the people at H&R Block that itemized deductions for volunteering was no longer accepted for Federal Tax returns.
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I just found an article from Forbes talking about the deductions you can and can’t take this year.
Basically, you can not deduct the time you volunteer, but you can deduct certain expenses related to it. Only if you itemize, and you itemize only if it’s over the standard deduction. (Then next year you pay taxes on the return you get from the state of your state does that. Mine does -totally not bitter, honest-)
Tell them to go read the instructions for Schedule A, under “Gifts to Charity” starting on page A-9:
Amounts You Can Deduct
Contributions can be in cash, property, or out-of-pocket expenses you paid to do volunteer work for the kinds of organizations described earlier. If you drove to and from the volunteer work, you can take the actual cost of gas and oil or 14 cents a mile. Add parking and tolls to the amount you claim under either method. But don’t deduct any amounts that were repaid to you.
Source: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf
As others have pointed out, it’s possible that your newly-increased standard deduction is greater than the sum of your itemized deductions. If that’s the case, it makes sense to take the standard deduction rather than itemizing. But that’s very different from being told that you can no longer claim volunteering-related out-of-pocket expenses as a deduction.
Disclaimer: I am not a tax attorney; caveat emptor.
To the best of my knowledge, you’ve never been able to claim a deduction for time you spend volunteering. And I agree with you and GeeTwo that doing so would change the character of the gift of time we give to our students.
However, you can deduct out-of-pocket expenses, to include unreimbursed travel expenses, you’ve paid in the course of volunteering. I’d been aware of this for some time, but tracking $0.14/mile in deductible personally owned vehicle expenses to and from meetings didn’t seem like it was worth the effort. However, last year, the only major road between my office and my team became a variable-rate toll road, with tolls ranging anywhere from $2 to $6 a trip, so I have a pile of tolls to deduct on this year’s taxes.
Similarly, I’ve been fortunate to be associated with a team that has the resources to pay my hotel expenses when I travel with the team. But in the event that I was not, this deduction would at least allow me to treat my hotel expenses as a donation to the team, and receive the associated tax deduction.
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Also you can’t itemize state tax anymore starting the fiscal year 2018 taxes anyway. And it’s hard to get over 24K in deductions without state/local/property tax.
I didn’t realize I could have deducted robotics trips as a charity deduction type thing until the middle of last year so too late for me.
I always do my taxes while watching week 1 events online. So FIRST still relates to my taxes! Just not financially.
I would agree that it’s not worth the effort of personally recording every single trip yourself. However, there are ways to automate the process! I’ve had a device called Automatic hooked up to my car for a while now. Combined with IFTTT, every trip I take gets logged to a google spreadsheet, including the start/end latitude and longitude and distance for each trip. Some formulas based on lat/long bounding tell me every single trip I took to/from the school. That means that I just need to track the exceptions (regionals and off-season events, outreach events, etc) that don’t involve the school on either side, and that is a LOT less effort (or can just be ignored).
Just going to/from the school last year was 2500+ miles.1800+ miles for other event driving. Then hotel/airfare costs… I always put it in and do the calculations. Along with other non-robotics deductions, it was worthwhile for me to itemize again this year.
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